Yasir Dilshad Siddiqui, an international student from Pakistan and in the third year of the Doctor’s Course in the Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences (Dentistry), received the IADR Colgate Research in Prevention Travel Award at the 96th Meeting of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) held July 25 to 28 in London. The presentation he delivered at the meeting was highly appreciated.

Yasir delivered a presentation on development of a new endodontic treatment (treatment in teeth for such as dental nerves) using an anti-inflammatory lipid mediator (lipid that activates physiological functions). Apical periodontitis (inflammation caused by dental nerve disease) develops as progression of serious tooth decay and can eventually destroy the alveolar bone in jaw. The disease has very high risk, especially for elderly people with weakened immune systems, and has a severe influence to general condition. However, general treatment for apical periodontitis is problematic because it is technically difficult to treat and has high rate of recurrence, both very significant issue worldwide.
Yasir and other members aim to develop a new intracanal medication that does not require any special medical equipment and can be handled easily by anyone. They focused on efficacy of Resolvin D2, one of the anti-inflammatory lipid mediators. In his presentation, Yasir reported that Resolvin D2 has the ability to regenerate lost jaw bone by closing the root ends of teeth, not only of suppressing inflammation. He discovered this when using Resolvin D2 with an apical periodontitis model of rats.